UK Advertising Authority Rules in Favor of No Man’s Sky

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of UK has cleared Hello Games of misleading consumers with false No Man’s Sky promotional materials.

Following its release in August, No Man’s Sky received heavy flak from everyone for not including various features that the developer had supposedly promised. On PC, many pointed out the game’s description on Steam to be misleading. Hence, entered the independent regulator which launched its investigation into Hello Games.

The ASA is designed to “regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK [by investigating] complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing”. According to its report, Hello Games made no such false claims when promoting its new game.

“We considered consumers would understand the images and videos to be representative of the type of content they would encounter during gameplay, but would not generally expect to see those specific creatures, landscapes, battles and structures. We therefore considered whether the game and footage provided by Hello Games contained gameplay material of a sufficiently similar type to that depicted in the ad.

“We understood that the user interface design and the aiming system had undergone cosmetic changes since the footage for the videos was recorded. However, we did not consider that these elements would affect a consumer’s decision to purchase the game, as they were superficial and incidental components in relation to the core gameplay mechanics and features. We therefore did not consider the ad was likely to mislead in that regard.

“We understood that the screenshots and videos in the ad had been created using game footage, and acknowledged that in doing this the advertisers would aim to show the product in the best light. Taking into account the above points, we considered that the overall impression of the ad was consistent with gameplay and the footage provided, both in terms of that captured by Hello Games and by third parties, and that it did not exaggerate the expected player experience of the game. We therefore concluded that the ad did not breach the Code.”